Teaching a horse to stand still when ridden

I find that going from walk to halt stand for a couple seconds, walk on, halt a couple seconds walk on ... repeat and gradually stand for longer. Worked for mine :D
 
Teach to stand still in hand by use of command word, then transfer that to ridden. If your groundwork has been effective then horse should stand when asked ridden or unridden.
 
when i ride comet i find that he gets excited to jump as he wont stay still either , i still have problems with this but maybe try turn his head into the wall on the outside of the track. do half halts every so often and eventually he will stand still.
hope this works:)
 
I would say too that it is best to start with groundwork. I have backed and am riding two American horses, and have a yearling also - (obviously not going to ride him yet!!) - but I have found that if I am impatient and want to get on with it this transfers to the horse! The trick I have discovered is to be patient and then the horse will follow your example. Western trained horses should be able to 'do' gates when you are on their backs - it is so much easier out hacking! Learning to stand when asked is a very important part of this. I am no expert I have learnt from my own mistakes I have not had any formal training, it is common sense really. I have often watched a neighbour trying to get on their large horse and be carted off before bum is in the saddle! This is rude (of the horse) and dangerous. But the person is not patient and has taught the horse this (perhaps inadvertently) but nevertheless! I was determined that mine would not be like that and they are not. And I have been 'training' the youngster from day 1 - though he probably doesn't realise that. I keep thinking of Monty Roberts and his 'breathing' and keeping his heart-rate down (sounds impossible to me) but this is just patience described in another fashion. Hope this makes sense! ;)
 
Currently going through this with Phil so I understand your pain. He hates standing still. If he moves away from the mounting block I make it simple. Stand still and it's easy or move and mother will make you walk in teeny circles back and forth :p

Undersaddle we are too just building it up from a few seconds :)
 
We teach ours to stand at the mounting block while we adjust girth etc by giving a treat from the saddle when we are ready to move off. I taught my mare who really couldn't understand stopping to talk to the neighbours to enjoy that by letting them give her a stroke and a treat.
 
xRobyn said:
Currently going through this with Phil so I understand your pain. He hates standing still. If he moves away from the mounting block I make it simple. Stand still and it's easy or move and mother will make you walk in teeny circles back and forth :p

Undersaddle we are too just building it up from a few seconds :)
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Its the good old "make the right thing easy and the wrong thing difficult"

I do the same don't want to stand still ok off we go and do lots of shoulder in, small circles and disengage the hip, my horse now looks at standing still as his reward for good work and in each training session we will have a 10 minute stand still in the middle of the school, head down just relaxing and enjoying the view, sometimes I will bring his head round to my boot and scratch his nose.

It took time but he gets it now and I can get off leave him standing whilst I set up some cones or poles and he will stand there.

And as SuenRoux says start on the ground. For the Mounting block I sat on it with a book and he had to stand there if he moved he worked got there in the end:-))

So in a nutshell no quick fix just lots of patience and immediate correction.

Best of luck x
 
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